On Monday, Germany’s foreign minister expressed hope that tensions with Russia over Ukraine might be resolved through diplomacy, but she cautioned that if Moscow attacks its neighbour, it would suffer.
Minister Annalena Baerbock was speaking in Kyiv as part of a tour that would take her to Moscow after last week’s discussions between Russia and Western countries over the Kremlin’s deployment of tens of thousands of troops along Ukraine’s border ended in failure.
Last week, the US expressed concern that Russia was developing a pretext to attack Ukraine, which Moscow denies. A cyber strike on Ukraine has raised the stakes.
“Each additional aggressive step will come at a severe cost to Russia, economically, strategically, and politically,” Baerbock said at a joint press conference with her Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba. “The only option is diplomacy,” she added.
On a visit to Madrid, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz emphasised that everything must be done to avoid military intervention in Ukraine.
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